Mumbai: For the second consecutive time, the Mumbai University senate elections have been cancelled. The university issued a press release late on Friday night cancelling Sunday’s election citing instructions from the state government.
The election, stated the MU release, stand “postponed until further notice.”
At least 10 seats across various categories have remained vacant since 2022 and the absence of elected students’ representatives has raised concerns about the university’s ability to address student-related issues in the senate. Earlier, in August last year, the university had been forced to halt the election process after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Aashish Shelar raised concerns over “irregularities” in voter registration.
Adding to the uncertainty, the state government had on Thursday issued a resolution appointing a committee headed by retired Judge KL Vadaneto review the number of voters registered for the MU election. According to the government resolution, “The committee should submit a report within 30 days regarding the existing laws and regulations as well as legal matters pertaining to granting representation to graduates from other universities and private institutions within Mumbai University’s geographical area.”
For this senate election, 28 candidates were vying for 10 seats but now the postponement leaves the fate of the election uncertain.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray reacted sharply to cancellation and accused the government of cowardice. “The cancellation of the Mumbai University Senate election for Graduation only shows how scared the BJP and the illegal CM, mindhe, are of the Yuva Sena– a youth organisation. Mindhe’s gaddaar gang is so scared of elections that they order the cancellation of the MU Senate elections a day before voting day. This is a farce for the world to see- what they have done to democracy now. They fear elections, and they talk of One Nation, One Poll. What a shame, the coward gadaars scrapping elections,” he posted on X.
The Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) stated that the university administration yielded to the pressure of chief minister Eknath Shinde at the last minute and suspended the election process for a temporary period. ABVP Konkan Region Minister Sankalp Phaldesai said, ‘It is very unfortunate that the chief minister, while repeatedly ignoring the students’ questions, has directly or indirectly put pressure on the university administration with his own political greed and decided to postpone the MU senate elections, which have been pending for the past two years. The delegation of ABVP is going to request the governor in this matter.”
On Friday morning, two days before the scheduled elections, the Bombay high court also heard a petition filed by advocate Siddharth Ingle, founder president of the Maharashtra Students Union (MASU), challenging the senate elections. He claimed in his petition that the election process is flawed and politically motivated. Ingle contended that the university’s election procedure contradicts the goals and objectives of the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016, arguing that the elections are “political party oriented” rather than focused on student interests.
His lawyer Rashid Khan also raised concerns about the university’s unconstitutional practices and drew the court’s attention to a notification issued on May 17, 2017, which imposed a ₹20 registration fee on graduate students participating in the election, despite no such fee being charged to electoral principals, professors, or management representatives.
Khan argued that this fee structure was unconstitutional and discriminatory, as it imposed an undue financial burden on graduate students. As a result, the number of registered graduate voters has drastically dropped from around 90,000 to just 13,000. The petition emphasised that this sharp decline in voter registration is indicative of deeper issues within the election process.
A division bench of Justices Atul Chandurkar and Rajesh Patil said that while they would review the petitioner’s concerns but they would not intervene in the senate election process.